Reviews

As Johnny Nash once sang "There are more questions than answers" and this is the starting point for this play - and also the end point. It's certainly hard (impossible?) for your reviewer, who grew up in small-town East Anglia, to judge how realistic a portrayal of inner-city London this is.

But then, that's probably the case for most of the audience in Ipswich - there certainly weren't many black youths in the theatre.

Stand-up comic Richard Blackwood and Mark Monero (who played Steve Elliot in EastEnders) are the star names, but it's definitely an ensemble piece where the players spend equal amounts of time on stage. Dialogue drives the play - there's no Boyz 'N The 'Hood style action - and no shootings.

Jean and Lloyd

The play starts off with an amusing comic turn as Lloyd (who reminds me a bit of the West Indian pensioner Lenny Henry used to play) asks matriach Jean (Jean Vincent in fact, but actress Claire Benedict doesn't break out into Be Bop A Lula) to marry him. Again.

Things then get steadily darker...

What's going on?

In Richard Blackwood's BBC Radio Suffolk interview he says he's been working his way up in the theatre from bit parts to co-starring roles. In this performance, you certainly forget he's a comic. He plays a businessman who feels the black family and neighbours are jealous of his success. The central tension is with his brother who he may or may not have shopped to the police.

Monero plays Blackwood's brother - and in contrast he's a drug dealer. They have a hate-hate relationship and their mother Jean wonders why they don't visit her more often and where she went wrong.

Then there's the question of fatherhood as Jean is left wondering whether she should have stuck with Desmond who's the father of Stephen - or with Lloyd, who thinks he's the father, but did a runner. Both Desmond and Lloyd are played by Geoff Aymer, although you wouldn't necessarily realise this.

Throw in confused teenager Sean (white actor Curtis Cole) and his failing father Lee (played by Joseph Kpobie aka Juley in EastEnders) and you're left asking if it's better to have no father rather than one who's a crackhead.

Sean and Adam discuss gay rights

Throw in another confused teenager Adam and you ask whether a young black boy would really dare come out as gay in his community - particularly by telling Sean, who he may have had a thing with, or a lippy teenage girl (played by Chandra Ruegg). His coming-out follows an entertaining scene on the sofa as he tries it on and she keeps changing the rules of engagement.

See what I mean by a lot of issues? I was also left wondering whether Sean is supposed to be black or white or mixed race - and does it make a difference to the issues raised anyway?

There's a sinister air - particularly with the hoodies on the stairwell threatening the young teenage girl and also the hoodies who do the scene shifting.

The play never drags and although it's around one hour and forty minutes, it seems quite bite-sized.

Anyone for self-cannibalism?

In an article in the programme, Olu Alake of the 100 Black Men of London organisation says "notions of black masculinity perpetuated by the mass media have resulted in emotional and psychological trauma ... this has led to a form of self-cannibalism which is manifesting itself in the disproportionate numbers of young black boys who are increasingly destroying themselves through knife and gun crime".

Sean and Sophie

He calls for an acceptance of a masculinity which takes in parental responsibility, education, respect for "his woman" and shuns violence and promiscuity.

The play leaves it up to the audience to decide if that's the message it's trying to promote. At the very least it's a banquet of food for thought. It's theatre that leaves you mulling things over for a day or two rather than giving you a definite conclusion.

And that's probably what good theatre/film/novels should be like.

Tickets and tour

Angel House by Roy Williams is an Eclipse Consortium production between the New Wolsey in Ipswich, the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds and the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Angel House runs at the New Wolsey 1-9 February 2008. Visit the website using the link on the right. The play is then touring until April at Manchester Contact, Birmingham Repertory, Nottingham Playhouse, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Salisbury Playhouse and Northampton Royal & Derngate.

(all photographs taken by Mike Kwasniak)